Blog Archive

Sunday, May 22, 2011

I'm Snow Shocked!

The hubs and my 4 year old took a drive up both Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons today. He wanted to see just how much snow is still left up there. The results were shocking!

Usually at this time of the year there has been enough of the snow that has melted that you can see patches of land and you can't ski on it anymore.

Usually people are making plans to camp for Memorial Day Weekend.

Not this year, unless you want to camp in snow caves. In 1983 Utah had major flooding because of late spring storms, cool temps and little snow melting. State street soon became a raging river.

Here's an image from that 1983 flood. Here's what is scary; this year we've had more snow and rain. It's been cold too so the melt has been slow here. If you've ever lived in Utah you know that it heats up overnight and that means all this snow will melt and cause major flooding all over again. Someone said that it will be like filling a thimble with a fire hose. So in other words, we are screwed!

Folks these pictures were seriously taken today, May 22, 2011.

I know this seems like a lot of run off but it's not. Usually this river runs right along the road edge this time of the year and then totally tapers off. By June the worst of it is usually over and I feel safe to take our kids up the canyons for Weenie Roasts. At this rate I'm hoping it's August before the run off settles down.

This is Silver Lake up Big Cottonwood Canyon. We usually are walking around the lake by this time of the year. I wonder when we'll be able to go back up and walk on the boardwalk.

I'm getting nervous for what the future holds. How bad will the flooding be? I'm just getting prepared to go help fill sandbags!